2023-01-12-PB-min - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Lexington Planning Board Meeting Minutes January 12, 2023, Page 1 of 11 [DOCUMENT TITLE] | [Document subtitle] Minutes of the Lexington Planning Board Held on Thursday January 12, 2023, Virtual Meeting at 6:00 pm Present: Robert Peters, Chair; Michael Schanbacher, Vice-Chair; Melanie Thompson, Clerk; Robert Creech, Charles Hornig and Michael Leon, Associate Member. Also present were Carol Kowalski, Assistant Town Manager for Development; Abby McCabe, Planning Director; Ms. Sandhya Iyer, Economic Development Director; and Molly Belanger, Planner. Robert Peters, Chair, called to order the meeting of the Lexington Planning Board on Thursday, January 12, 2023, at 6:00 pm. For this meeting, the Planning Board is convening by video conference via Zoom. LexMedia is filming this meeting and will record it for future viewing. Detailed information for remote participation by the public may be found on the Planning Office web page. Mr. Peters conducted a roll call to ensure all members of the Planning Board and members of staff present could hear and be heard. Mr. Peters provided a summary of instructions for members of the public in attendance. It was further noted that materials for this meeting are available on the Town's Novus Packet dashboard. Board Administration Zoning Work Session: Multi-Family Housing Zoning for MBTA Communities. Public work session for Planning Board to develop zoning proposal for Annual Town Meeting. Mr. Peters said that the Board planned to continue the process of going through the proposed district maps. Ms. McCabe shared the presentation which detailed the continuation of the Public Work Session from January 4, 2023. Ms. McCabe suggested the Board members go through the maps showing the district boundaries and continue reviewing the districts and later review the text of the Zoning bylaw. Ms. McCabe gave a quick summary of the reason behind zoning for MBTA Communities and detailed the progress made by the Planning Board in this regard and the basis of decisions made by the Board. Ms. McCabe showed pictures of multi-family housing in Lexington for the Board to visualize the proposal. Ms. McCabe shared a map of Lexington which showed the areas that the Board was considering to include in the zoning for multi-family housing, based on the discussion by the members of the Board in their previous meetings. Ms. McCabe reminded the Board about their consensus to remove a few areas that were considered and about requiring first floor commercial uses in Lexington Center. The first area discussed by the Board was VLO Bedford St/Worthen Road. Ms. McCabe said that this area has the most acreage and would qualify as the large contiguous area that has to be proposed to comply with the State’s guidelines. The Board discussed the properties that were included in the district and agreed that this was a good location to include for zoning for MBTA Communities.